Massive project will add D.C. city blocks

WASHINGTON – A busy stretch of downtown D.C. where Interstate 395 dips below city streets and into the 3rd Street Tunnel will experience disruptions for years to come due to a massive project set to get underway soon, NBC4 reports.

“There’s a lot of room down on that highway, so we can shift traffic around,” says Bob Braunohler, regional vice president for Property Group Partners, the project’s developer.

“The speeds will go down, but the lanes will stay open,” he says.

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The project will connect F St. and G. St. NW across I-395. (WTOP/Nick Iannelli)

Workers will build entirely new city blocks by connecting streets that, currently, are separated by highway traffic that runs below them.

Among other changes, F Street and G Street NW will be connected to their counterparts on the other side of the highway.

“The highway is down in a trench for a reason,” Braunohler told NBC4.

“This was always planned. When they built the highway back on the ’60s, the idea was eventually it would be built over. And now we have finally gotten to where the market has caught up with that vision.”

Building a new foundation that connects all of that land will not be easy, or cheap.

According to NBC4, it will cost hundreds of millions, the connecting base framework itself will cost $250 million.

The construction site stretches from Massachusetts Avenue NW to E Street NW.

Work will begin in mid-March and will take almost four years to complete.